Part of me kind of hopes she stays there for the whole video.
The other part of me hopes she shuts up.
Hi, YouTube, it's Kathy, and this is my Weekly Entertainment Wrap Up for May 7th to 13th.
This week I read 4 books, I watched 3 tv shows, I watched 2 movies, and I listened to 1 book.
First this week, I finished In the Labyrinth of Drakes by Marie Brennan.
This is the fourth and penultimate in the Lady Trent Memoir series.
There's not a lot I can say without potential spoilers, but in case you missed my wrap ups
of the first three books, these books take place in a fictional world that is much
like Victorian England, but there are dragons, and our protagonist, Isabella, is a naturalist
who travels the world and studies dragons.
She gets into much trouble and adventure along the way.
[To animals] Why are you both grooming right now?
Because it's the best time?
Really?
My library seems to have just gotten the 4th and 5th books in this series as audio book,
so I have the 5th on hold, but also have a print copy on hold, and I'm going to consume it
however it gets to me the fastest.
Brennan's writing is witty and delightful, and the text in this book was a deeo red colour,
which I forgot to take video of because reasons.
[To cat] Hey, stop that.
Don't eat the ottoman!
Second, I finished Texts from Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg.
This one is exactly what it says on the tin - text conversations between various literary
characters, and it is full of snark, and modern vernacular, and is great if you want to read
something, but don't want to have to read too deeply.
I haven't read all of the books and plays that were paraphrased in here, but I don't
think you need to be 100% up on your classics to enjoy this.
Third this week, I finished Noteworthy by Riley Redgate.
I've heard this billed as Pitch Perfect [meets] She's the Man, and that's pretty
accurate but then add in a bunch of diversity and social consciousness, and that's basically
this book.
Jordan is an alto at her super fancy private arts school, which she got into on scholarship
because her parents could not afford it otherwise.
She's not being cast in roles because of her specific vocal range, so when a spot opens
up on an all male a capella group, she cross dresses and tries out.
This book touches on so many intersections: race, class, ability, gender, neurodivergence,
and unlike any other cross dressing tale I've seen, it actually addresses the cross dressing.
The protagonist realizes she's using tips from the internet that are meant for trans
boys, which makes her reflect on the difference between people who are just trying to go stealth,
and people that are cross dressing basically for funsies.
When someone accidently sees her naked when she's in boy mode, it was refreshing that
that they asked if she was trans as though it's not a big deal, they're just surprised.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Finally, this week I finished The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli.
I technically finished this at 2:30am on Sunday, because I just couldn't put it down, and
minus the animals in this apartment, I had the place to myself so I could get
really cosy and just read.
This isn't a sequel to Albertalli's supremely wonderful Simon vs. the Homo Sapien Agenda,
but it does take place in the same universe, with a little bit of character cross over, and
it follows Molly, who is a girl that has a lot of crushes, but has not been kissed.
There's a lot to love about this book.
The narrator made me snort laugh on several occasions, her twin sister is a feminist badass,
several sexual orientations are represented, and although there isn't an ace character,
there is mention of being ace.
Molly is also part of a Jewish mixed race family, in which one of her moms carried her
and her twin, and her other mom carried their little brother years later, using the same sperm donor.
This book made me cry and feel all warm and mushy, and was a delightful way to spend an evening.
As for movies, this week we watched Step Up 3 and 4, which I'd never seen before, and
we spent a ton of time snarking about the shots that were intended for, and how some of the dances,
while delightful, made the characters seem like jerks.
The writing wasn't great, but the dancing was awesome when you suspended your disbelief
about these characters being about to afford all the gear, and all of the lights, and all of the things.
I also watched the first season of Drunk History.
I'd seen clips of the show before so I knew the basic premise, but there was a lot more
over-intoxication than I was expecting.
As one narrator said, "Puking on Drunk History is like crying on Barbara Walters".
If you don't know the show, someone gets drunk and tells a story from American history,
and then actors play out the story as it was told, using the dialogue from the drunk narrator.
I expected Hannah Hart levels of tipsiness, not black out, vomiting drunk, which made
me feel like the show was taking things way too far.
It actually made me glad that I decided on a whim to not drink this year, even though
I drink in moderation.
The dialogue integration with the actors was funny, but there were times where the story
just didn't make sense.
I am always here for swearing, but that is the type of thing that gets bleeped out and
cultural insensitivity gets left in.
The show is remarkably well put together and well cast, but it does make me cringe at points.
Saturday night, I watched the season 2 premiere of Sense8.
I was expecting a regular length episode, but it was a double.
It liked seeing the characters again, and catching up on what had gone on, because
it's been a while since I watched the first season.
Something that bothered me while watching it, however, is the entire main cast all thin,
muscular and beautiful, with ridiculously maintained bodies, which, fine, makes for
great group sex scenes.
However, on a practical level, Sun is in solitary confinement in prison and had perfectly hairless
legs and armpits.
This show has ethnic diversity, but no body diversity.
This same thing came up for me this week while I was watching Survivor.
I was distracted by Sierra's perfectly manicured, blue fingernails, and none of the women have leg hair.
Our society, or media's perception of it, is so freaked out by body hair
that woman shave already smooth legs in razor ads.
As much fun as it is to look at this, casting only ridiculously defined bodies makes it
feel like average bodies aren't allowed to be appreciated.
Oh, yes, this is a perfect time for you to hunt for food.
[sound of cat food falling] That's going to make shooting a video hard.
This week I listened to The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
This story follows Salvador, who is called Sally by his best friend and Salvie by his
father, through a pretty intense last year of high school.
His mother died when he was a toddler, and he was adopted by his single father into a
wonderfully large Mexican-American family.
On the first day of school, he gets into his first fist fight, and starts wondering if this
violent tendency comes from his biological father.
At first, it felt like this book was a haphazard collection of moments of Salvie's life,
which made it a little bit difficult to get into, but overall I really enjoyed this method.
These snapshots allowed you to get to know the characters piece by piece, and I really
cared for all of them.
Life is full of moments, and ordering them into one story does take an inexplicable amount
of logic.
The voice actor for this project, Robbie Daymond, had distinct voices for all of the characters,
and really brought them to life.
That's it for this week.
If you've read, watched, or listened to any of these, let me know your thoughts on
them down in the comments below.
On the way down to the comments, if you could hit that Subscribe button, that
would be very nice of you.
You can also like and share this as you see fit, and I will see you next week.
Bye!
[outro music]
I like that you're slowly falling off the couch.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah. Oh, now you are going to chew on the other foot. Okay.
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